


Precious

by BadHidingSpot



Series: Bradburry 2016 [11]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Jackson is Peter's son, Jackson is lost Hale
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-26
Updated: 2016-05-26
Packaged: 2018-07-10 10:08:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6978994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BadHidingSpot/pseuds/BadHidingSpot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jackson tracks down his birth father and is ready to meet him. His friends have some well placed anxiety however.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Precious

**Author's Note:**

  * For [steamcurious](https://archiveofourown.org/users/steamcurious/gifts).



> I have always detested the way in fan fictions people will describe a character as being "adopted" and then will say "so she/he never had a real family". That's always pissed me off. So has the "longing to meet your birth parents" trope. But, that being said, the show itself already introduced that trope. And Jackson just strikes me as that douchebag who doesn't appreciate his adoptive parents. Mainly because the show seems to paint him that way.
> 
> What I'm trying to say is that adopted families are great, the views implied by the main character of this fic are not my views. I hope that makes sense.

Precious  
This was going to be the greatest day of Jackson's life. No previous birthdays would ever compare. Not even the day he met Lydia or He-Man would compare. Because today, on this, his 18th birthday, he would finally meet his birth father.  
It had been a closed adoption and the only way Jackson could meet his birth parents would be if he himself, as a legal adult, sought them out. Or, at least, that was his very basic understanding of it. On second thought, where had he heard that? Had Isaac told him that? Maybe Lydia? This was crucial for a moment, if it had been Lydia it was most likely true. If it had been Isaac it was most likely a lie concocted to keep Jackson from happiness.  
He shook the thought from his head. It didn’t matter; he was meeting his birth father, his real father now. Everything would be just as he had always imagined it: he'd be proud of what a great lacrosse captain Jackson was, he'd be proud of his status as Homecoming King, he would clap Jackson on the shoulder and say "My but you grew up so handsome, son". It almost brought Jackson to tears.  
In his mind it played out like a sitcom, Full House or Family Matters, with the fourth wall missing and this incredible audience clapping and crying along with the family, with his family. What would their show be called? "All Hale Breaks Loose"? "Whittmore The Merrier"? Should he use his adopted family name or his birth family name? He and his Dad could work that out together. There were plenty of possibilities. Maybe they could combine them: "Whittmore Power Comes A Hale of a Lot of Responsibility"? That may be too long.  
Jackson sat on the steps outside the courthouse eagerly awaiting Peter Hale Attorney At Law to come out. He'd be well dressed, of course, and probably loosening his expensive tie after a long day of winning cases. Jackson had done his research….by having Stiles do his research.  
"Why can't Lydia do this for you? Or Danny?"  
"Because Danny and Lydia think that this is unhealthy for me. They refused."  
"So happy to be considered. You must know that I encourage your poor health."  
"Do you need to talk to do this?"  
"For another $20 I don't."  
Jackson wasn't sure if Stiles was kidding or not but he gave him another 20 bucks anyway just in case. It did silence Stiles for the full hour and a half it took him to narrow down all the Peter Hales on the internet. Stiles printed out the information sheets and handed them to Jackson.  
"Are you sure you want to meet this guy? He kind of seems like a slime ball."  
"Shut up about my dad," Jackson said snatching the papers away and pursuing them.  
"Okay at best this tool is a sperm donor. Give a little credit to the guy who raised you."  
"Raising isn't everything," Jackson muttered only barely hearing what Stiles was saying.  
"Actually it is," Stiles corrected, "raising is basically all of the things.  
Jackson responded by smacking Stiles on the head with the print outs. "If you think you're telling me something I haven't heard before, you're wrong. As usual. My dad probably had a good reason."  
"You've taken to calling him 'dad' rather quickly-" Stiles began but stopped half way through as if realizing something. Probably that, in his mind since he was ten, Jackson had been building a picture of his "real mom and dad" and this guy was already being put into that place.  
"So what about my mom?" Jackson asked flipping through the pages again.  
"No sign of her. She's not listed in the adoption application. It's just Peter. He probably wanted to keep her identity secret."  
"To protect her," Jackson whispered.  
"What?" Stiles sounded incredulous. Jackson ignored him. "Whatever. Sure. Anyway, if you want to find her I suggest asking Mr. Hale here."  
"Whose this leather clad guy? Why do you have so many pictures of him printed?" Stiles grappled for those pages quickly but Jackson, being much better than Stiles in every physical sense of the word, kept them away.  
"That's just-that's not related. That's-like-those are for me."  
"But he's in pictures with my dad. Is he my brother?"  
Stiles glowered. "No. He's your cousin. Derek Hale. You 'Dad' defends him in court pretty often. I just wanted to do a little more research on him. You know. Make sure it was safe to get involved with that family."  
"But there aren't any articles about him in here. There's just a punch of newspaper pictures of him."  
"Yeah well nothing turned up. Look you have everything you need there. Can I have my money and print outs please?"  
"What's this? An engagement announcement? He's remarried?"  
"Well we don’t know that he was married before so we can't really say-" Jackson interrupted Stiles with a look. Stiles huffed. "Yeah they're planning a June wedding. She has two daughters."  
"I have a step mom and step sisters?"  
"You are actually too pathetic to be in my bedroom right now. And that's saying something. Take your weird, serial killer esque obsession with your bio-Dad and leave."  
Jackson just threw a wad of cash at Stiles without counting it as he left. He assumed it was either the right amount or more than because if it had been less, he would not have heard the end of it.  
That thought had consumed Jackson as much as anything else: he had sisters. Probably adorable baby sisters he could give piggy back rides to and teach how to ride a bike. He could take them to see the Frozen sequel. In his mind he started calling them "Anna" and "Elsa" as their real names were not printed in the paper. He knew it was silly but it made him smile. "Silly" was not the term Lydia had used.  
"You are acting like a crazy person," she'd said primly.  
"A crazy person?"  
"For lack of a more accurate, less compassionate term, yes. This is the way a Criminal Minds episode starts. Some weird kid gets obsessed with his birth family and projects-"  
"Isaac Lahey is a weird kid. I'm not."  
"You're acting like Isaac Lahey right now."  
"What? Are you serious?" Jackson didn't think he'd been so insulted before.  
"You lay around all day, fantasizing, instead of thinking rationally about what all of this actually means."  
"It means I finally have a family."  
Lydia replied by doing that thing where she screamed with her mouth closed. After doing that for a full half minute, she took in a deep breath. "It means that you are meeting someone who decided that, instead of raising you or having an open adoption in order to be a part of your life, said 'screw that', and handed you off. It means that you have to face this person and possibly hear that. I'm worried that you aren't ready to hear that. I think you should be ready." She reached across the table and took his hand. He let her hold it.  
"We don't know the reason." She rolled her eyes. "He could have a really good reason!" Jackson insisted. She pulled her hand away.  
"He could," She admitted sighing, "but most likely he doesn't."  
"You don't know him," he reasoned.  
"Neither do you." She stood up and took an Uber home instead of riding in the car with him.

Even if Lydia was right, somehow, Jackson was convinced that once Peter met him and saw how great he turned out to be, he would then want to be a part of Jackson's life. Explaining this to Danny went over a lot easier. Danny at least acted like a best friend should and indulged this as an idea. That was, until, Jackson got to the part about Anna and Elsa.  
"Those aren't their names," Danny corrected.  
"I know that. Obviously," Jackson rolled his eyes, "but until I meet them-"  
"No I mean, here," Danny fiddled with his tablet and then held it up to Jackson, "I did some research after Stiles sent me the information-"  
"Why did Stiles send you the information?"  
"He wanted my help on an sort of unrelated research matter."  
"What unrelated matter?"  
"Something about your cousin. Hot guy by the way."  
"Good genetics, obviously." Jackson smirked and took the tablet from Danny. "Who's this?"  
"That's your younger step sister, Malia. She's pretty frequent on Instagram."  
"She's….old."  
"She's 17. She's still younger than you."  
"But I thought she'd be little."  
"You imagined that she'd be little because that fit into your fantasy," Danny took the tablet back and flipped to another screen then gave it back to Jackson, "That's your older step sister."  
"She's a nurse?"  
"She's working towards her med degree. She's pretty close too. That's the student page from the university she attends in the city."  
"You are way better at this than Stiles."  
"No duh," Danny scoffed taking his tablet back. "But you get it right? There's no Frozen marathon, there's no big brother little sister trips, there's none of this stuff you've labeled as a possibility."  
"So we'll do other stuff," Jackson replied but he sounded disappointed already by the idea of interacting with girls his own age, "I'm bad with kids anyway."  
"Quit doing that," Danny groaned, "you're building everything up."  
"You sound like Lydia."  
"Lydia is a genius. I'm flattered by that."  
"I know it won't be just as I pictured but once we meet it won't matter-"  
"There it is again," Danny sighed.  
"What?"  
"You don't know that you're going to be allowed to meet them. You don't know that this Peter guy wants anything to do with you. You don't know that he's talked to his new family about having a son he gave up for adoption or any of that. All you know is that he's a guy who exists. That's it."  
"Why does everyone keep trying to talk me out of this?"  
"We're not," Danny said kindly, "we're trying to talk you out of doing it wrong."

Doing it wrong? What did that even mean? Like there was even a wrong way to be reunited with your long lost father and his new family. Like there was a wrong way to present yourself fully grown as the perfect son. As if there could be a wrong way to friend your little sister on Instagram without being creepy about it. Or-well actually that had gone poorly but once they met it would be better.  
No, this was right. Everything he was doing was right. He was going to meet him, now, and everything was finally going to feel right. He approached Peter, long strides that the tried to keep from looking too eager. He stopped in front of him and raised his hand.  
"Peter Hale?" Jackson asked his voice tense with excitement. Peter looked at him as if just now seeing the obstacle in his way. He didn't recognize him right away, of course he wouldn't. But Jackson saw it in his eyes; the flicker of recognition raising and Peter's heart beating a little faster? He must be thinking "Could this be? Is it my son?" Jackson controlled himself by not shouting "Yes! Yes I am! I'm so happy to meet you!". "Hi. I'm Jackson. I'm-"  
"Sorry, Son," Peter said simply pushing past him and continuing down the stairs, "whatever it is, I'm too busy." And just like that he descended the stairs, stepped into a town car, and was off.  
Jackson remembered that bottomless empty feeling he'd had when his parents sat him down to tell him he was not their blood son. He felt it tenfold now.


End file.
